The Kitty Cat Caper!
"The Kitty Cat Caper!" is a one-issue comic by Joe Books. It is a retelling of "The Kitty Kat Kaper", a 1992 comic story originally featured in Disney Adventures, and serves to (re)familiarize the audience with its star villain: Fluffy. Summary Up in Darkwing Tower, Darkwing Duck has hired Honker Muddlefoot to go through his lengthy piles of case files and transfer them to his new computerized database. As Darkwing opens the first drawer, Honker is nearly sent flying out the window from how long it is, but is saved thanks to some timely grappling-hook use. Darkwing then pulls up a file and begins to reminisce to Gosalyn about one of his past cases to help pass the time. In the Applied Sciences division of SHUSH Central, Darkwing and Launchpad McQuack have arrived to deal with an incredible dilemma, and also to partake in the complimentary sandwich buffet. As Launchpad makes himself a sandwich, J. Gander Hooter and Gryzlikoff introduce Darkwing to Dr. Meddle, a scientist who has recently lost one of his test-subjects, an orange housecat. Meddle gives Darkwing a ransom note that was left behind, which Darkwing cannot identify as belonging to any known villain as it's typed and in an indecipherable code (though it's actually just very badly-misspelled). Nonetheless, Darkwing is confident that he'll solve the case, but the moment is ruined when Launchpad takes a bite of his overloaded sandwich and sends its insides all over everybody. Following the note to 444 Fourth Street, Darkwing sets down a decoy satchel for the unknown criminal to take as bait, then disguises himself as a hot dog vendor to watch and wait for it to be taken. While waiting, Darkwing serves a child a hot dog, one so hot that it burns his hands. As the child runs in pain, the hot dog goes flying into Darkwing's pants and gives him a rump-roasting, and then the child's father appears to beat on Darkwing for harming his kid before throwing him in a trash can. During all this chaos, a cat in the alley steals the satchel. As Darkwing pulls himself out of the trash, he finds that the satchel has vanished, but also finds a receipt for deli sandwiches that several of St. Canard's villains have been dividing the check on. He deduces that one of them is the catnapper and that they are all holed up in a nearby hotel. Gosalyn interrupts the story at this point to complain that she is bored of listing to Darkwing talk about fighting crime when they could be out actually doing it instead. Honker, meanwhile, has just finished cleaning out the drawer of case files, but Darkwing tells him that it's only the first of 400 and puts him back to work before continuing his story. Darkwing and Launchpad barge into the hotel room to find the villains Bushroot, Megavolt, Liquidator, Tuskerninni, Jambalaya Jake, and Moliarty, but none of them are interested in him right now. They're watching "The Miss Corn Fritters Pageant" on Pay-Per-View and refuse to budge until it's all over, so Darkwing and Launchpad fork over ten bucks each to watch with them. Once the pageant ends, the villains immediately begin attacking Darkwing, but he soundly defeats the whole lot. Gosalyn asks what all this has to do with Fluffy, but Darkwing assures her that his memory of the ordeal is flawless (to him, anyway). Back in the story, Darkwing has just finished interrogating the villains before the police haul them away, but none of them know anything about the missing cat. Darkwing suspects that the villains were a distraction created by some new evil genius who has come to challenge Darkwing Duck. Launchpad interrupts his ranting to point out that he found the satchel, and also the cat who took it. The two give chase into a nearby house and sneak inside, but the lights come on and a loud voice with a distinctive lisp taunts them from a nearby chair. Darkwing initially thinks it's the Invisible Man come to challenge him, and then he looks into the chair to see the face of a cute and adorable kitty cat named Fluffy... who just so happens to talk and does not like being called cute. Realizing that housecats don't talk, Darkwing demands an explanation. Fluffy explains that Dr. Meddle's experiments had enhanced his intelligence to mega-genius levels, that the satchel and the sandwich receipt were designed to lead Darkwing to him, and that the ransom note was admittedly full of typos due to his lack of fingers. In any case, Fluffy boasts that he'll make St. Canard into a city of cats once Darkwing Duck is gone, but his lisp makes his threat impossible to understand. Fluffy thus decides on a more visual explanation as he summons an army of cats to shred Darkwing and Lanchpad to ribbons. Darkwing scares them off by drawing a water pistol and spraying them out of the house, but they lose sight of Fluffy and follow the cats into an alley. Fluffy then appears to taunt them as more cats arrive to ambush them. As luck would have it, a street-sweeper drives by and sucks Fluffy into it, allowing Darkwing and Launchpad to capture the conniving cat while he's disoriented. Back at S.H.U.S.H., Darkwing has a talk with Dr. Meddle about why he would turn such a sweet little kitten into an evil genius. Meddle admits it was a silly idea in hindsight, and then admits that he should stop with his plans for making genetically-engineered sharks while he's at it (to which everybody is in agreement on). Back in the present day, Darkwing throws the case file onto Honker's pile. Gosalyn asks if he'll ever have to face Fluffy again, but Darkwing assures her that he'll never escape St. Canard's new prison. He is unaware, however, that Fluffy has already escaped with help from Mortimer Marquand and that the two of them are hard at work creating a new mechanical suit. Cast Quotes : "Come, Launchpad, the game is afoot!" : "Oh, I love that game. That's the one with the little boats, right?" :- Darkwing Duck and Launchpad Gallery Notes References * For the retelling, the line "I think Miss Dogpatch was cheated!" was changed to "I think Miss Mouseton was robbed!". Mouseton is the hometown of Mickey Mouse. Continuity * "The Kitty Cat Caper!" is a retelling of "The Kitty Kat Kaper" which takes some liberties with the facts of the original story. The primary changes include: ** In "The Kitty Kat Kaper", Gryzlikoff is not present during Darkwing's first meeting with Doctor Meddle. He is present in the retelling. ** Steelbeak and Quackerjack have been replaced by Jambalaya Jake and the penguins. ** Dr. Meddle and Fluffy have been redesigned from the original story. Meddle is now a tall and lanky-looking bird as opposed to his older and stockier original design. Fluffy has lost most of the fluff in his cheeks and now sports white patches of fur on his paws, muzzle, and tail so as to play up his cuteness. This redesign is inspired by the original sketches by Doug Gray for his creation. * Honker complains that his job sorting files isn't worth a nickel an hour, and Lauchpad tells him "I used to have a boss that paid one-sixth that!", referring to Scrooge McDuck. Errors * After the police take the villains away, Launchpad says "None of those guys seemed to know a thing about poor little Fluffy.", but Fluffy's name was not yet revealed to him or Darkwing at this point in the story. Other * Top Secret Files: Splatter Phoenix, Cat-Tankerous, and Darkwarrior Duck. External links * The Kitty Cat Caper! at I.N.D.U.C.K.S. Category:Joe Books